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kingkos

Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
11
Location
The Hammer, ON, CAN
Hi guys, after waiting patiently for Toyota to come up with a remedy for the wiper recall (had to wait for all recalls to be fixed before importing it to Canada), I finally jumped on one of these puppies a few weeks ago. Took about 3 weeks or so to work through all the paperwork back and forth with the dealer, then another week to have it shipped to Buffalo, NY, where I went and picked it up to bring it home to Toronto. I owned a 2013 LEAF for just over 2 years before this, so I'm not new to EV's.

The 2 main reasons for selling the LEAF were size and range. We recently had a third kid, and the LEAF was starting to feel a bit tight, particularly since it was our "go to" car 80% of the time for family outings. Over those 2+ years, the car did not give us a single issue, drove as good on the day we sold it as the day we bought it. We put 44K km (28K Miles). The LEAF would get somewhere between 100km-140km (62-90miles) depending on speed, heating/AC, temperature, etc... while it was enough for what we needed, there were several occasions where we could have used an extra 20 or 30km's. On paper, the Rav4 EV is the perfect replacement.

I've read through this forum and had a pretty good idea of the risks and potential problems, and decided to take the plunge anyways. Picked up an off-lease 2013 Blizzard White with 65K miles on it.

So here are my impressions after a few weeks:

The Good: Car is in excellent shape. It doesn't look like it was abused. Drives very nice. Doesn't pull or shake, no weird rattles. Exterior looks great. No noticeable chips, dents, dings, or scratches. Interior also well kept. Heater works, everything seems to function as it should.

The Bad: 2 common issues presented themselves immediately: "check EV system" light is on and there was a definite motor hummmm, even at very low speed. I had a pre-purchase inspection done at Tustin Toyota and no mention of either of these two issues?!?!?! $140 well-spent I suppose.

The Ugly: Service was obviously a potential issue out here. Took it into a local dealership earlier this week and they said they simply can't work on the car. Not entirely unexpected, but still disappointing. I called Toyota Customer Care and they were more or less useless. I later called Kevin Spillane and he was very helpful. Scheduled a field tech to take a look at it in Buffalo later this week. The car is still drive-able and other than the humm and the check EV light, all is good.

Overall, the car accomplishes the two things I bought it for....more space and longer range than my LEAF. The LEAF probably beats the Rav 4 in most other categories though. Time will tell whether or not this was a good purchase, but works still rather take my chances with this than go back to another ICE vehicle.

If there are any Canadians wondering about the importing process, it was pretty straight forward. The biggest thing is to make sure the recalls get fixed, and get a proper pre-purchase inspection done (not sure how), but the Toyota one is a waste of money. There's a setting to change the digital Speedo to km/hr. You'll have to "fix" the Daytime running lights to always be on when the car is running, but that's not too difficult either.

I know there are a bunch of out-of-state owners already and i'm guessing there will be more with all the off-lease ones hitting the market. Maybe time for an "out-of-state" owner section?

Anyways, glad to be here.
 
You are brave. I would have probably chosen one that was closer to 30,000 miles on the odometer so that there was some of the Powertrain Warranty left. If yours is noisy with 65,000 miles on it, Toyota has no obligation to do anything about it.

If the car is still drivable with the Check EV system message, it might be nothing. You should check on the health of the 12V battery. A marginal battery can cause the Check EV system message when nothing else is wrong. I would hate for you to take the car to Buffalo, and pay $150 for a 12V battery and $160 labor for them to troubleshoot the fact that the battery is toast. Remember, a transient Check EV System error can be cleared by restarting the car 5 times.
 
I already swapped out the battery and cycled on/off to try and reset the check EV light with no luck. I might be cycling on/off wrong, but not sure. Should I be turning the car on (with my foot on the brake), or just on so that the instrument panel lights up. Either way, this is still something I want to get checked out.

I hear you about getting one with some warranty left, but I'm hoping Toyota steps up and does the right thing here considering that this is a common problem and the car is barely out of warranty. Keep in mind that the 3 year warranty period on the 2013's is over anyways and a lower mileage one wouldn't be in warranty anyways. I was also hoping to avoid this by having a Toyota dealership inspect it prior to purchase, but they failed to inform me of either the motor hum or the check EV system light. Either way, I'll deal with this now and even in the worst case scenario, I can still drive it as the humming is not a deal breaker at this point.
 
Thanks for the clarification Tony. Tried it, no luck. Light still on. Driving down to buffalo tomorrow to leave it at a dealer there for an assessment.

As for the warranty....for some reason I thought it was 3 year/60K. My mistake.
 
Picked up car from dealer yesterday. Check EV system light turned out to be battery coolant pump fault code. Field tech hit it a couple times with a hammer (I assume), and reset the code. Hasn't come back since, but he told me up keep an eye on it and if the light comes back, should probably replace the pump.

He took the recording of the motor noise and sent it up the chain. He said someone from Toyota (probably Kevin) will contact me next week about it. He said that while the car is out of warranty, Toyota has goodwilled these motors in cases like this so fingers crossed, although he has no idea how long his might take.

Something to note is that sport mode is disabled when there's a "check ev system" light, and now that my light is off, wow. This thing flies! Even in the snow and cold, with some decent winter tires it can really go.

Another note is in -10C (15f) weather, with snow tires and the heat set to auto eco low 26C (78f), I managed 120km (75 miles) before it hit "lo" on the GOM. Based on what I've seen here, I imagine this is mostly due to:

1. highly inefficient heater.
2. Battery heater drain
3. Snow tires
4. Ice and snow accumulation on car (increased drag) and road.
5. ? Did I miss anything?

This is still 20% better than my 2013 LEAF under similar conditions, but i was hoping for better. Either way, if I can get this motor humm issue resolved, I'll be very happy with this thing.
 
kingkos said:
Another note is in -10C (15f) weather, with snow tires and the heat set to auto eco low 26C (78f), I managed 120km (75 miles) before it hit "lo" on the GOM. Based on what I've seen here, I imagine this is mostly due to:

1. highly inefficient heater.
2. Battery heater drain
3. Snow tires
4. Ice and snow accumulation on car (increased drag) and road.
5. ? Did I miss anything?

Was that with a full "extended" charge? When you fully charge the car, reset the trip odometer (it seems you did) and then reset the consumption meter. That is in the center screen:

1) press lower center screen black mechanical button
2) select "EV"
3) in the upper left, select energy consumption (or whatever it is called)
4) get to the screen to hit "UPDATE"... you can clear everything out on both pages, too

Then, drive, and give us the miles and consumption rate (preferably in miles per kWh, not km)

I think you may not have been fully charged. The low charge light with two lighted fuel gauge segments is still 3-4kWh remaining.

Also, preheat the car prior to driving in the cold (that's all on the EV page, lower left hand corner, if you want to schedule it while plugged in... don't forget to hit SAVE on the page previous to the actual schedule. It is not intuitive.

If you have a normal car with about 10% degradation, then you have about 37kWh available on a full "extended" charge and about 32kWh on a "normal charge.

75 miles / (32kWh - 4kWh) = 2.7 miles per kWh... very believable on even a warm summer day if you are driving normally in town

You'd be around 2.3 miles per kWh if you used an extended charge.
 
There's a Honda dealership out in BC that imported a bunch of used RAV 4EVs for the US, and I'm looking to test drive one next week. Wondering for any other Canadian owners what the service/dealer support experience has been? They're asking about $30 CDN for a 2013/2014 with 50k KMs.

Also, are there any key things I should be looking for when making the purchase decision? I'm a newbie in this realm. Like the OP, we've now got 3 kids. I currently have a Jetta TDI (that was affected by Dieselgate) and am wanting to assuage my green side by looking for a good green/EV option that will fit 3 kids in a row. Thanks!
 
LOL. They get along well enough and are young (3 mos, 4 yrs and 7 yrs). They all fit into a Jetta right now and I imagine the RAV4 has to be roomier than that!
 
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